Gordon Campbell on the continuing Manning saga, and BTS

Gordon Campbell on the continuing saga of the
Chelsea Manning visit, and BTS

The National Party has played
fast and loose with the facts during its campaign to deny an
entry visa to the American LGBTQ activist Chelsea Manning.
First, National’s immigration spokesperson Michael
Woodhouse claimed “other countries” had refused Manning
entry, because of her previous felony conviction for leaking
classified documents.

In fact, those “other
countries” consisted only of Canada, which did refuse
Manning entry back in September 2017… but (crucially)
Woodhouse neglected to mention that Canada had then reversed its position in May
2018, and issued Manning with a visa that enabled her to
speak at the 7th annual C2 business conference in Montreal
later that month. So… rather than being an example of why
Manning should be denied entry, Canada is actually an
example of why she should be issued a visa to speak here.
Well done, Woodhouse!

Secondly – and as others have
pointed out - New Zealand has previously issued visas to
convicted felons. The notable examples include Nelson
Mandela in 1995, and the convicted “Wolf of Wall
Street,” Jordan Belfort, who was granted a visa during
the term of the National government in 2014 so that he
could deliver a motivation talk here – and thereby “make
money from his crimes” to use Woodhouse’s charming turn
of phrase. The reason for the Belfort entry lies in the fine print of the immigration
rules:

[An Immigration NZ] spokesman said Mr
Belfort was yet to apply for a visa, but he was eligible
because his sentence was less than five years and the
conviction was more than 10 years ago. Only those sentenced
to more than five years are ineligible for a visa for
life.

So the morality at work here is arbitrary. The
leniency commonly shown to white collar criminals helped
enable a fraudster like Belfort to gain automatic entry,
while the duration of the sentence handed down to Manning
(widely seen as excessive at the time) throws him back onto
the discretions available to Immigration NZ, and to the
Minister of Immigration.

In passing though, should we
really be surprised that National seemed quite OK with a
former predatory stockbroker being able to deliver an
inspirational talk here, but wants to refuse similar access
to Manning – who wants to talk about prison reform, and to
share her knowledge of the discriminations faced by a
transgender community that features disproportionately
within our youth suicide statistics? Put it this way: whose
visit – Belfort or Manning – stands to be of most
benefit to New Zealand? Keep this in mind:

Mr Belfort
was charged in 1998 with securities fraud and money
laundering and served 22 months in prison after investors
lost about $200 million. Investors are still chasing the
full $110 million he was ordered to pay in
restitution.

Sure, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter
Dutton seems about to deny Manning entry to that country.
But why should we line up alongside a knuckle-dragging bigot
like Dutton? Canada offers a better example. Or better yet,
shouldn’t we just stand up for our own values of
peace-making and tolerance and let her in?

Because of her
prior conviction, Manning has had to lodge an application to
Immigration for a “special direction” visa. If this is
denied by Immigration, she can then apply to Immigration
Minister Ian Lees- Galloway (or more likely, to his deputy
Kris Faafoi) for an exemption. If Faafoi does allow an
exemption, one can expect National to try and make political
capital out of it. Perhaps they should recall the words of
then Prime Minister John Key, who at the time of the Belfort
visit, spoke approvingly of the discretionary powers open to the
Minister in immigration cases. Key also noted that the
Immigration Minister enjoys “ “wide discretion” and
has the power to “ look at a range of different factors”
in this case in 2015.

Perhaps the fact
that Key’s parents were both immigrants had left him more
tolerant on immigration matters than the current National
crew seem to be. Werewolf’s initial story on National’s
crusade against Chelsea Manning can be found here.

Phone
Battles, Trade Wars

In case you missed Donald
Trump’s battle with his speakerphone, this footage from
earlier this week is already a classic.

What Trump was trying
to talk about was his alleged bilateral “deal” with
Mexico over the contentious NAFTA rules-of-origin in the
auto industry. Trump has shut out its other NAFTA partner
Canada from this new agreement – which means it isn’t
yet at agreement at all, because NAFTA still exists, and any
new arrangement will still have to be passed by Congress…
but hey, it enables Trump to pose as having “fixed” the
NAFTA trade pact.

….There are just three
models made in Mexico that are currently exempt but would
attract tariffs under the new regime: Nissan Motor Co.’s
Versa Sedan, Audi AG’s SQ5, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
NV’s Fiat 500. Of these, only the Versa sells more than a
handful of models in the U.S., with 106,772 vehicles shipped
in 2017.

The wage rules aspect of this new bilateral
package would have wider application, but hardly at
game-changing levels, either. As Bloomberg
explained:

Almost all non-Nafta content in Mexican-made
cars sold in the U.S. comes from Germany, Japan or South
Korea, where total compensation typically takes pay well
above {the new rule that 40 to 45 % of the car’s content
must be from factories paying at least $16 an hour] So [in
all likelihood] the rules will only really affect vehicles
that are at least 55 percent made in
Mexico.

That’s a similarly small group. Excluding
Ford Motor Co.’s Fusion and Fiesta, General Motors Co.’s
Chevrolet City Express, and Mazda Motor Corp.’s Mazda2 —
which are already off the U.S. market or heading that way
— they sold a collective 658,640 units in 2017, according
to our calculations. That compares with total imports from
Mexico of about 2.44 million cars.

So… it seems that
Trump is wildly exaggerating the positive impact on American
jobs! What a surprise. This is not a game-changer. It still
has to be ticked off by Canada, and by Congress. And no one
is mentioning that the guy signing the Mexican end of this
bilateral plan is a lame duck with no moral authority to tie
his already elected left wing successor to this arrangement.

BTS Conquers World

The Korean boy band
BTS continue their march to world domination, with their new
video breaking Taylor Swift’s Internet record for most
downloads in one 24 hour period. Sure, BTS are as cute as a
bagful of kittens… but are their songs any good? For
starters, this Steve Aoki remix (from late 2017) of their
“Mic Drop” single is an endearing attempt to out muscle
Kendrick Lamar. Can BTS do cuteand mean? You be the
judge:

And as for the new
Internet-crashing single “Idol” … the song isn’t as
good as “Mic Drop” but the video is utterly jaw
dropping:

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